Animal Transport Violations Prosecuted for the First Time
For the first time, an animal transport has resulted in criminal prosecution. 121 out of 249 pigeons died during a transport from the Czech Republic to Belgium without access to water.
Last August, a transporter carried 249 pigeons over 1’000 kilometres from the Czech Republic to Belgium.
121 Pigeons Found Dead During Police Check
With outside temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius, the animals were forced to endure the journey without air conditioning in a severely overcrowded cargo hold. There was not even any drinking water available. The offence came to light during a police check in Lower Saxony; by that point, 121 pigeons had already died. The penalty order issued by the Osnabrück public prosecutor's office against the person responsible, following a complaint by PETA, has now become legally binding. He must pay 1’800 euros and only narrowly avoided a criminal record. The animal rights organisation is now appealing to all authorities that grant transport permits to treat this precedent as a benchmark for future decisions on the legality of animal transports.
Transporting live animals is always an act of cruelty, regardless of whether the animals involved are pigeons, chickens, pigs, cattle, sheep, or other species. Overcrowded trucks often lack drinking water, and animals sometimes trample each other to death. It is a milestone for animal welfare that violations during an animal transport have now been criminally prosecuted for the first time. The penalty order issued by the Osnabrück public prosecutor's office must henceforth be applied as a standard for all transports of animals misleadingly referred to as “livestock.”
Dr. Edmund Haferbeck, Head of the Legal and Scientific Department at PETA
PETA Demands an Immediate End to All Animal Transports
The organization recalls that, for animal welfare reasons, numerous federal states have already banned at least transport to non-EU countries by decree. Reports from veterinary authorities, animal welfare advocates, and the media repeatedly confirm that animals on many of these routes — some lasting days or even weeks — receive no care or only inadequate care. Along these routes, loading and supply stations are often missing. As a result, the animals must endure the journey packed tightly together, surrounded by their own excrement. Even young animals that are still dependent on their mother's milk are frequently forced to endure lengthy journeys. Even on comparatively shorter routes, animal suffering is unavoidable. Accidents also occur frequently, in which many animals die.
«There is no such thing as humane animal transport. In accidents, pigs, cattle, chickens, or turkeys die in agony, slowly and painfully. Body parts are crushed or broken. The sensitive animals panic, suffer circulatory collapse, or heart attacks», says Haferbeck. «All consumers can do something about these grievances by removing meat and other animal-derived products from their diet. Only a vegan diet provides lasting help for animals.» More on the topic Recreational hunting as an animal welfare problem.
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